To-Do List

WHAT.A.DAY.

I think because I was out sick yesterday that Tuesday decided to behave like a Monday.  Today was just all out ridiculous. I can’t really pinpoint any one thing that went wrong, it is just all kind of a blur. I feel like I blinked and it was suddenly 4:00 and I had no idea where the day went. It was one of those days where I was constantly saying “now what was I doing?” because I kept trying to do 10 things at once. And, at the end of the day I only had one thing crossed off my To-Do list. One thing?? Seriously?? I think that is what bothered me most about today, the fact that after 9.5  hours at work I could only cross one thing off my list when I was busy all day long. Which means one of two things: I am not doing a good job at writing my To-Do list (which is totally not true, I re-write it twice a day… don’t judge me), or people need to leave me alone and stop emailing and calling me with problems that they could fix themselves if they would just do their job!!! Sigh. Anyway, the point being that my To-Do list is obviously  a symptom of my neurotic OCD tendencies. But at least I can admit it.

Then I’m on the way home, trying to calm down after a stressful day at work. That didn’t last long because I got stuck in traffic. It wasn’t until after calling a third person an-ugly-word-that-I-won’t-say-on-here-because-my-preacher-reads-this that I realized I wasn’t handling it well. I needed some music to calm me down. I put on my Coldplay playlist; not sure why, but they calm the crazy. Ahhh. Much better.  I was deep in my Coldplay induced trance when I came over a hill and almost nailed a ginormous huge ugly buzzard that was in the middle of the road (I’m pretty sure given the size of ol’ Buzzy and the small size of my car that had I pulled up beside him we would have been eye to eye). Now THAT would have really just made my day.  Luckily he moved before I could hit him and end up writing a blog post about hitting a buzzard. I told him to buzz off. (ha!! Ok that was probably only funny to me)

Once I get home I am immediately struck with the panic that there are just not enough hours in the day to get done all of the things I have to get done in the next 5-6 weeks. Gone is happy-excited-can’t-wait-to-graduate me.  Enter: panicked-stressed-gonna-pull-my-hair-out me. There’s a meltdown coming, I can feel it. The buildup has already started. Last week I was so stressed that I came home and cleaned up and cleaned out all weekend (it’s a coping mechanism; don’t judge me).  When I’m at work I’m worrying about school. When I’m at home I’m worrying about work. Plus dance recital is coming up and oh yeah I need to finish the project that my graduation depends on. Oh and both Sam and Susan Claire are playing baseball now so there are those games to attend. No sweat! I can do it! I am superwoman! I’ve thought about giving up sleep… but I’m sure that will be detrimental to pretty much anyone I come in contact with on a regular basis. Is it bad that the only thing I'm looking forward to this week is the fact that Rapunzel comes out on DVD? (Um, yes, that movie was hella funny. And yes I just brought back "hella") What's even worse is that this isn't even what I was planning on writing about for this post. But lucky you, I had a bad day and you get to hear me complain! 

One thing is for sure: I picked a HELL of a time to start my diet.

A Mean Motha

Ok, what gives? Was the first day of spring just a joke? I have already put up my winter coat in hopes that I won’t see it again until November, when I’ll pull it out and find a $10 bill that I accidentally left in the pocket. I have already mowed my lawn twice and gotten excited over the smell of fresh cut grass. I have already gone to the baseball field to watch Sam practice and gotten excited at the sound of metal bats . I have already turned my heat off and dusted off my ceiling fans in hopes for a few weeks of a low electric bill. And most importantly, I have already started wearing my Jack Rogers and other fun summer sandals. And now you pull this crap? Temperatures in the flippin' 30s and 40s? I mean come on, we all know that winter is the red-headed stepchild as far as seasons go. Everyone loves summer because it means no school and days at the beach, lake, etc. (and unfortunately some use it as an excuse to wear far too little clothing). Everyone loves spring because it is the first warm weather in months and everyone loves fall because it is a breath of fresh air from the humidity of summer. But no one likes winter. It is too cold, you have to wear too many clothes, and the heating bill is astronomical. The only good thing about winter is the snow, and it never really snows enough to amount to anything. It just gets cold enough to ice a little and screw up everyone’s plans.

So how about this, Mother Nature? Bite me. I may have turned my heat back on but I refuse to get my winter coat back out (fashionable as it may be).  

Friday Funny

This has been a pretty long week. Work, dance, and school all escalated to a level of crazy that was “committed-with-a-straight-jacket” worthy. So today is Friday, a window to the weekend and a little less crazy. I walked in the door at 5:30 and just had to laugh. This is what I found: 

Welcome to my life. Izzy was lying under the chair but of course ran away when I started down the hall to take the picture. The reason the chair is there in the first place probably needs an explanation. The white spot on the wall is where Dad came yesterday and fixed the hole that was there; the hole that was made by Tweedle Dum and/or Tweedle Dee more than 8 months ago. I’m not sure how or why it got there, but I came home from work one day to find a scratch on the wall. Interestingly enough the scratch mark perfectly matched a cat’s paw.  The next day I came home and the hole was even bigger and deeper, going through to the sheetrock. Kitty heads were going to roll. Anyway, it has been there for the last 8 months or so, looking all “here I am, a hole in the wall that needs patching and I can’t get someone to come and fix me” and everything. So when Dad finally patched it yesterday he put one of the chairs from the bar in front of it so that Mo and Curly wouldn’t mess with it until it was dry. So much for that! At least I didn’t come home to white paw prints up and down the hall.  

Girls Night

Susan Claire came to spend the night last night and we had a girls night. When Ashley asked her if she wanted to come to my house she squealed and jumped on the phone to talk to me. She said she would bring girly movies and all of her dress up clothes. So cute!

The last time she spent the night I took her with me to the grocery store to get snacks, milk, breakfast stuff, etc. Big mistake. I ended up leaving with a lot more than I planned to get, like pomegranate applesauce for instance. She assured me that she liked it and would eat it, although freely admitted that she chose it because it was purple. Anyway, this time I got smart and went to the grocery store before I went to pick her up, and it was around 5:00 by the time I got to Ashley’s. Three trips to the car and 45 minutes later we were on our way. I convinced her not to bring the ginormous bag of dress up clothes she had prepared, because my kitties would probably mess them up with their claws. In reality, I didn’t want her bring the ball-o-glitter that is her favorite Ariel dress and end up getting green glitter all over my house. I mean, I’m all about decorating for St. Patrick’s Day but that would be a little extreme. Instead she only brought 2 dresses, in addition to her Cinderella shoes, a crown, 5 movies, her sleeping bag, and her overnight bag (which had 2 stuffed animals and a baby doll stuffed inside).

(Side note: SC is famous for getting me sick. If she has a cold, she always gives it to me. Ashley is sick right now and it did cross my mind that SC could potentially bring the sickness with her. But she was fine, not even a runny nose, so I forgot about it. No joke? Halfway to my house she is sneezing and green stuff is coming out of her nose. I mean really??) 

Once we got home and I unloaded all of her stuff, we settled in to watch a movie. She put on her dress up clothes and her crown, set up her sleeping bag, and then had me waiting on her with snacks and drinks. After a few hours of movies, snacks, bath time, and more movies and snacks, it was bedtime. SC was planning to sleep in the bed with me, which I expected because she says she gets scared sometimes at my house. I also knew from past experience that I was in for a night of not so much sleep. I lay down with her for a little while to get her settled and honestly could have gone to sleep myself. She was talking and playing with her stuffed animals, showing no signs of being sleepy. Hmm… maybe the Hershey’s kisses and sprite she was having a half hour before bedtime weren’t such a good idea? Heh. Then she put her hand on my face and sang Rock-a-bye baby, and 2 minutes later she was snoring. So funny!

I decided to go to bed sort of early for two reasons; one, because I had gotten up early that day for dance and was tired, and two, because I knew I wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night. SC is notorious for moving around in her sleep, and if you are sleeping next to her then you are out of luck. I was in my room for about 10-15 minutes getting ready for bed, and she didn’t move a muscle. Hey, I thought, maybe this won’t be so bad. No kidding? I’m in the bed for less than 2 minutes and she is flopping around like a fish on a dock. I guess she has some sort of spidey sense for when someone is lying next to her. At this point she was in the middle of the bed, so I moved her over to her side and settled in to go to sleep. About 30 seconds later she kicked me in the groin and flopped her legs over on top of me. I moved her over again and tried to go to sleep. A little while later I felt her next to me again, and I looked at the clock hoping at least an hour or so had passed. Nope, just 10 minutes. Sigh. It was going to be a long night.

I woke up about every 15 minutes, and either moved her completely back to her side or moved whatever appendage was draped over me at that point. Wake up, move her, fix covers. Wake up, move her, fix covers. I got clocked in the nose and smacked in the face at one point, and a few more kicks to the stomach. Around 3:30am I finally gave up and left her alone, and tried to salvage the rest of the night’s sleep.  And by the way, when I say she was next to me, I mean she was thisclosetomybody. You couldn’t have wedged a piece of paper between us. For someone who doesn’t like to be touched and certainly doesn’t like to be touched when I’m sleeping, this was mighty uncomfortable. I stared longingly at the entire other side of the bed that was empty and lonely and wasted space. But then I watched her sleeping and I realize it’s not so bad. So maybe I don't get a good night's sleep. It's worth it just to wake up in the morning to a pat on the shoulder and a kiss on the cheek from my favorite niece.  And who am I kidding? I’m sure she’ll sleep with me the next time she comes too. 

Movie, check. Dress up clothes, check. Snack, check. Sleeping bag, check. 

Cranked Up

I have been some kinda cranky the last two days. A combination of not getting enough sleep, not feeling well, and having a gazillion things to do both at work and at home have something to do with that I'm sure. And throw a ton of schoolwork in there, too. Add to that the stress of knowing that I completely SUCK at updating my blog lately, and I am Senora Cranky Panitas (probably not the correct word for "pants" in Spanish, but I like the way it sounded).

So I have a few choices here. I could go all rainbows and smiles and write about something completely random and happy. I could not update at all and continue to get hounded by my mother and sister to "blog update please! :)"... which by the way adds to the cranky panitas. (Sidenote - a quick google search will tell you that panita is actually something to do with a Mexican political party, as I just found out myself. I assure you that I am not grabbing my sombrero and heading south to join some kind of revolution; I was just lazy in looking up the correct word for pants in spanish). Ah, where was I? Oh yes, choice #3: In keeping with my cranky mood I could write a complete random post about things that annoy, irritate, or otherwise generally tap dance on my nerves. I'm voting for choice #3.

Manners - why does no one say 'please' or 'thank you' or 'excuse me' anymore? I realize that after reading this post many will probably think I have no manners at all because of some of the things I've said. But I'm talking about the fundamentals here. I bet at least 5 times a day I want to smack someone and say "were you raised in a barn??"

Facebook - Reading about how much you love/miss/can't wait to see your "baby" and ohmygoshyoulovehim/hersomuch. And no, it's not because I'm single, it's because no one cares that you can't wait to get home to see your "boo".

Parking - Seriously? I can't understand how this is a problem for so many people. The spaces even have lines so you know where to go between. I bet you couldn't color inside the lines as a child either. Backing up and straightening up is not going to make you any more late than you already are, and neither is straightening your wheels from where you turned into the spot from the wrong direction. Work with me people.

Driving - A funny thing happens when you press the gas pedal. The car MOVES FASTER. My road rage has lessened considerably since I started driving my hybrid, what with it having no get-up-and-go. But when you are talking on your cell phone and cease to remember that you are driving, it bothers me. Perhaps the radio should be off limits too?

Gum - Chewing gum in church! Major pet peeve. See "were you raised in a barn" comment. I sit in the choir loft and I can see everyone. And I will judge you.

Miley Cyrus - Just don't like her. Period. Can't she "Party in the USA" somewhere else?

Grammar - MAJOR PET PEEVE. If you don't know the correct use of your/you're, to/too, and their/there/they're, please go back to elementary school. Spelling mistakes I can forgive, especially since most people are typing on itty bitty keyboards on their phones (notice: their, as in possessive, as in the phone is yours. NOT there, as in, over there). So please pay attention when you tell someone that they are awesome; because when you say "your awesome!" IT IS WRONG. And I hide you from my news feed.

Sigh. That's all I've got for now. I'm sure I've offended someone in this post, and I'm sure some of you think I'm horrible for the things I've said. Eh. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone usually thinks theirs is right. Since it's my blog, I've just given you mine.


Pantalones! Just remembered the spanish word for pants.